


Bad End 2.5 (Happy Birthday Kirari)

by WastefulPhoenix



Series: Ankira: Bad End [2]
Category: THE iDOLM@STER
Genre: Birthday, Emotions, F/F, Fluff, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 05:10:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11960391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WastefulPhoenix/pseuds/WastefulPhoenix
Summary: Bad End, but not emotionally scarring. Suggested you read my Ankira series first, so this has more oomph.





	Bad End 2.5 (Happy Birthday Kirari)

It was funny to me that today of all days would be one of the days I had to work the hardest. I’d left the house early in the morning and came back almost around the same time. Normally, I didn’t have to work these almost 24-hour shifts, but during the beginning of the month the places I did security had a lot of money coming in, which required my utmost attention.  
As I approached my door, I was dead tired. I felt as if I might not even be able to turn the doorknob. If there was any silver lining for today, it was that my nails that the little one had painted didn’t get messed up. I didn’t get into any fights at all, so the two inside wouldn’t have to worry about tending to my wounds in the morning. That alone brought a small, obviously exhausted smile to my face as I turned my key and let myself inside.  
“Happy Birthday, Kirari!”  
“Happy Birthday, Mommy!”  
The two voices called out in unison the moment I took a footstep inside as if I’d triggered a booby trap of some sort. Since I was tired, I could barely understand the situation immediately, but my eyes looked around the room and started to piece together what was going on.  
My entire apartment was decorated. Even the couch had confetti all over it. Hanging from the ceiling above our shoddy table in the middle of the living room was a message that was obviously for me. The letters were cut out of huge paper and covered in bows and glitter. It said, “Happy Birthday, Kirari (Old)”. My smile was slowly turning less exhausted and a little more concerned.  
Then, my eyes locked onto Anzu and the kid, whom were sitting across from one another. Their smiles were even brighter than what I was used to coming home to. Still struck into speechlessness, I watched as Anzu reached into a bag that was strapped to her wheelchair, tossing a small cylinder to Kirari.  
“Crap, we forgot the party poppers,” Anzu quickly took a tight grip on the string before nodding to Kirari that it was time.  
Two pops and confetti had started to rain from the sky. They’d really thrown me a birthday party even though it was already over? Ah, that really warmed my heart. I really thought they would’ve been asleep by now.  
“How…long have you two been awake?” I couldn’t help but ask, but instead of getting a proper response, Kirari’s small hand had quickly taken mine, closed the door behind me and forcibly dragged me to the couch with what bit of strength she could muster.  
“Don’t worry about that, Mommy. It’s your birthday,” Kirari snuggled up beside me, forcing one of my arms around her shoulder.  
“It’s Anzu-chan’s birthday..”  
Upon closer inspection, I finally noticed that there was a silver platter with a lid on top on the table and that platter was also surrounded by two tall beers and a bottle of soda. It was obvious that the soda was for Kirari and the beers for me and Anzu. A weak laugh forced itself out of me. It was funny that they’d do all this for me for some reason.  
“You can celebrate my existence later, right now, we’re going to eat,” Anzu waved her hand as if it could erase my issue with what was going on. Then, she pulled the lid off the platter in front of me. The sight of that cake made all the exhaustion from the last day suddenly leave my body entirely.  
Every letter on the cake was a different color. I felt that if I spoke it aloud, I’d cry or something, so I simply mouthed the words that had been written on the cake in icing. ‘We love you, thank you for everything, Kirari’. Of course a hand flew over my mouth. The more I examined the cake, the happier I became. This was obviously made from scratch and the handwriting was Kirari’s… The icing had gotten hard and I could tell this wasn’t very fresh anymore. They’d probably been forced to guess when I’d get home and made the cake a long time ago.  
“The sun is going to come up soon, Anzu-chan….. Are we going to eat cake for breakfast?…” For some reason, the words that came out weren’t the appreciative words that I was actually thinking. Maybe I just didn’t want to have to cut into this cake yet. I wanted to keep reading the words a few more time.  
“Yup. Cake for breakfast. If you’re worried about ruining the message on the cake, we planned around that. Right, Kira?” Anzu gave her usual confident smile before clapping her hands together and rubbing the handles of her wheelchair for just a moment. Then, maybe since Anzu couldn’t, Kirari stood up and next to her mother, puffing out her chest with a grin that mirrored her parent’s.  
“Thank you for walking me to school in the mornings and picking me up. Thank you for taking care of my mom and letting us live with you. Thank you for feeding us… Thank you for dealing with my dad even though you hate him. Thank you for being a role model to me, Kirari. Thank you for being my mother. I hope I get to become just as cool as you someday,” Kirari listed one thing after another before jetting forward and wrapping her arms around my waist and nuzzling her head into my chest.  
Starting to cry, I put a hand on her head. This was my daughter now. She did all the things I ever wanted from a child I wanted with Anzu and it truly warmed my heart. Role model? Was I really worthy of being anyone’s role model? That didn’t matter… As long she saw me in that light, I could keep on doing what I was doing. I really had gotten what I’d wanted all this time, just in a different way.  
“I love you, you little bug, don’t forget that,” I rubbed my cheek against her hair, soaking some of it in my tears without a single regret whatsoever. I’d do whatever it took to make her grow.  
“Because it’s your birthday, I won’t chastise you for calling her a bug again. But, the appreciation ceremony isn’t over. It’s my turn,” Anzu cleared her throat before taking a deep sigh as if preparing herself for a fight. “Thank you for being born, Kirari. If I hadn’t met you, I wouldn’t have grown up at all. If you hadn’t been my friend, I wouldn’t have made the good choices or any of the mistakes I’d made. I wouldn’t have this wonderful daughter, I wouldn’t have gotten this wheelchair and I wouldn’t have learned to appreciate anything I had in my life. Things didn’t quite go as planned for us, but I wouldn’t change anything that happened, Kirari.”  
“I’ve...never thought I was worth really celebrating before…” Trembles assaulted my body as I squeezed out those words between tears, clutching Kirari as if my life depended on it. “I’m so happy that I grabbed you two…”  
I had spent so much time hating myself even now, that I still needed my worth to be spelled out to me by these two. The reason I’d brought them in originally was out of guilt, I was sure. Guilt for hurting Anzu, guilt for running away from her and guilt for hating a child that had done nothing wrong. But, they’d done just as much for me over this time as I’d done for them.  
My heart was full again after all these years of torturing myself and taking out my anger on other people, my apartment walls or heavy bags. That anger…barely existed anymore. It was a small hot coal now. The free days that had been spent drinking and sulking had been replaced with walking the child to school, helping her with her homework, and assisting Anzu with whatever she couldn’t do alone.  
Without saying a word Anzu rolled her way to me. Carefully, she climbed herself out the chair to sit beside me, lying her head on my shoulder, then grabbing a beer with her other hand. Wanting as much warmth as possible, I looped my hand around her waist as well, pulling her with enough strength to make her groan in pain.  
“She fell asleep already…” Anzu commented through clenched teeth, pretty much confirming that they’d been awake for a very long time now just waiting for me.  
“I still…don’t want to forgive you…” The words had slipped out of my mouth because they were true. No matter how much I loved these two, there were still things I didn’t like.  
“I love you too, Kirari. That’s just another way that you express your undying affection for me. After all, you only say that when you’re feeling really good nowadays.”  
“You know me too well, Anzu-chan…” I said it under my breath, but I was sure she could hear it.  
After setting Kirari in the other chair and letting her sleep a bit more comfortably, me and Anzu clinked our beers together and started to drink. Once we started to cut into the cake, it was even more apparent that I was right about it having been sitting out here for a while just to surprise me. I ate it anyway. I couldn’t let it go to waste.  
“Did Kirari hang up all these decorations? They’re pretty high up,” I’d started to wonder as sunrise began pouring unwelcome light into the room.  
“Of course she did. You don’t own a ladder, but if she stands on my shoulders, she gets around your height or taller. It’s not like when you leave I can walk all of a sudden,” Anzu pat her legs as if it would jumpstart them while she poked her fork at what she’d named “Rock Cake”.  
“And the cake?”  
“Me and Kira.”  
“She’s earning her keep pretty well, huh?”  
“She’s my daughter, after all. She knows about hardwork.”  
“Hearing you say that is still funny, Anzu-chan.”  
“I feel the same way now. I hope my parents are proud of me. I’ve become a pretty good girl, right? Maybe even wife material? Wanna get married, Kirari?”  
“I refuse,” I shoved another, rather large piece of cake in my mouth just so nothing else would come out.  
“That’s fine. We don’t need to be married to love eachother.”  
“We’re not together.”  
“You’re still on that?”  
We bantered the rest of our time awake away just like that, talking about serious things in casual manners sometimes and casual things in serious manners at others. Anzu had fallen asleep first, of course. Maybe those two had the longest day and not me. I used the bits of consciousness I had left thinking about what I could possibly do for Anzu while it was still her day… I’d definitely get my daughter to her.

**Author's Note:**

> I both wrote this for a friend and to celebrate Kirari's birthday.  
> I hope it's enjoyed or causes a smile or two.


End file.
